


Safety Rope

by TeaLeafv



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Bat Family, Batfamily, Blood and Injury, Descriptive Injury, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightwing - Freeform, Panic Attacks, Red Hood - Freeform, Robin - Freeform, batfam, insecure Dick, poorly timed kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2020-09-25 03:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20370001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaLeafv/pseuds/TeaLeafv
Summary: Jason receives a late night call from an injured Dick Grayson. Upon arriving he realizes the extent of the help Dick needs, both physical and emotional.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to get back into writing and figured that fanfiction would be a good place to start practicing again!  
I listened to Von by Arnor Dan while writing this if you want some good mood music while you read, it's a really beautiful song  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfksYyxGRJw

Jason hated going out at night on his days off. In fact, he didn’t like going out off duty much at all. He tries to shake off the feeling of constantly watching his back, the intense observational habits he had picked up from years of strife – the man reaching in his bag could pull out a gun, the woman who had bumped into him before hastily apologizing could have marked him with a tracker… the phone call he was currently receiving could be another trap.

He squinted his tired eyes against the harsh blue light of his phone shortly after jolting awake from the noise. His slow breaths hung in the air in thick clouds, and he stuffed his free hand underneath his armpits to ease the cold numbness that had spread through his fingers as he slept, making a mental note to call in for a repair to his apartment’s heater. As the ringing of his phone continued to pound against his groggy mind, he made out the name on its screen.

_Dick Grayson_

“Shit…” he muttered under his breath as he slid himself out from under his thin bedsheets, exposing his already shivering toes to the raw air of his room. Grayson never called him unless there was something wrong.

And nothing ever went wrong.

As the ringing came to a stop, he hastily stood up, still bleary from the sudden awakening. Cursing at himself for not answering the call in time, he grabbed at his thick leather coat that had been hanging from his door. A sudden stab in his arm caused him to wince, and the coat slid to the floor. He held his arm, grimacing for a moment at the thick purple and red bruise that spread along the skin of his forearm; a gift from the previous night, given to him by a steel pipe.

Clearing his head of the injury, he reached for his coat again and threw it on before quickly grabbing his bright red helmet, paying no mind to the harsh coldness that had spread over its length through the night. He started for his window as he made an attempt to call Dick back, and when there was no answer, he assumed the worst and snatched his crude first aid kit from his bedside drawer, tucking it under his arm.

As he stopped at the frame of his window, he made one last attempt at reaching the late-night caller, still with no answer.

With a deep sigh, he opened the window and prepared to begin his search for the Nightwing needle in the haystack of Gotham.

Before he could begin his blind search however, his phone lit up once again with a notification; a location had been shared with him from Dick.

“Couldn’t have answered my calls back?” he huffed as he took in the location before lowering himself out of the window and to his motorcycle sitting idle in the alleyway below. Rubbing his gloved hands together to generate warmth the best he could, he sat on his bike, succumbing to a quick series of shivers as his body adjusted to the temperature, even colder outside than it had been inside of his room. Taking a last glance at his phone, hoping in vain for anymore contact from Dick, he stuffed the device into the pocket of his coat and took off into the maze of roads.

Jason didn’t know Dick very well. He hadn’t gotten the chance to. He didn’t have anything against the guy personally, but anyone involved with Bruce’s little daycare left a bad taste in his mouth and he found himself creating distance the best he could. Out of all of them however, he found Dick to be the only one he could tolerate to a certain degree. Perhaps it was the very brief history they had had together in his short time as Robin, or perhaps it was the initial liking and sense of awe he had taken to the hero at the start of his life as the replacement Boy Wonder.

Not that any of that mattered anymore. He had dug himself into deep enough of a hole underneath that family that he found it impossible to get out anymore without hurting himself, ripping nails and breaking fingers. They had stood at the edges, watching him as he crawled deeper and deeper, moving not a single muscle to help him, not a single voice speaking up to tell him to stop, that if he continued further, he’d never be able to get himself back up.

That their rescue rope had a limit.

His thoughts were blasted from him as a cold gust whipped around his form, enticing a shudder from him. The cold was less brutal underneath his jacket, but it stung nonetheless against the speed of his motorcycle. He made a quick glance to the map on his phone. The blip in the map was inching closer as nervous knot in his stomach was growing tighter.

He bit down on his lip and roughly turned the corner of a building, continuing down the road, following the route to the indicated stop.

As anxiety continued to bubble in his throat, slowly replacing the hint of irritation he had had when he initially left, he increased his speed and his turns became sharper. He knew he was driving more recklessly than usual but the tugging at his chest wouldn’t stop and could feel that something was very wrong.

He made one last attempt to call Dick, hoping that he would answer; that he would answer and tell Jason that the call was a mistake.

There was no answer.

Panic rose in his throat like a toxic bile, and his sense of urgency heightened. As Jason turned around the last corner, his bike slid out from underneath him at the sharpness of the action and he stumbled to the ground, rolling a short distance away.

Although unscathed due to his thick clothing, he was left dazed and winded, his ears ringing from the sudden shock and a splitting headache creeping through his temples. He pulled himself to his knees and groaned, removing his red helmet with some difficulty and rubbing his fingers along the sides of his head while he coughed and struggled to control his breathing. As the ringing in his ears faded, it was replaced with a new sound; a phone was vibrating on the concrete a short distance away from him. With shaking hands, he brought his own, now cracked, phone into view and saw that his call to Dick was still going through.

Snapped back to the reality of the situation, he scrambled to his feet and made his way over to the vibrating sound, stumbling a little on the way.

When he reached the source of the sound, the dizziness from his spill on the cycle hit him in another wave and he fell, catching himself with his hands. He took a moment to steady his breathing but was interrupted when he caught something in the corner of his vision.

A hand.

Torn black and blue fabric.

Bruised knuckles and dark crusted blood underneath the fingernails.

“…Dick?” Jason coughed out as his awareness of the situation was forced back into him.

A short distance from him, the crumpled form of the older lie on the freezing concrete, his body pressed into a corner in a curled position.

He wasn’t moving.

Jason put his hand over Dick’s, gingerly curling his fingers around the dangerously cold hand, noticing the few awkwardly bent digits. He gently squeezed in an attempt to prod him awake.

Dick stirred at this with a light moan, his body wincing from the touch. Jason noticed this and moved himself to Dick’s side, gently taking his head in his hands to turn it in his direction. As Dicks’ face came into view, his mask missing, Jason let out a breath of concern at the sight. A massive array of purple, red, and yellow spread itself along the length of the right side of his face, reaching up to his severely swollen eye, and blood trailed from both nostrils, curling into the grooves and cracks of his parted lips. Tiny clouds of vapor made their way out of his mouth, indicating that he was still breathing.

“Dick!” Jason called his name once more; his voice a little harder than before.

The other jerked suddenly at this, his body springing back to life in a heated fit of panic. His hands snapped up, blindly pummeling into Jason’s chest with weak force as Dick began to squirm underneath him. His breathing became erratic and each breath seemed to catch in his chest as he gasped between inhales, desperately trying to get away.

His hits, although weak, surprised Jason, and with a light hit to the temple the exploding headache from his previous fall found its way back to him.

“Dick stop!” He yelled through shut eyes, furrowing his brows and pressing one hand to the side of his head.

“Go away!” Dick cried out as he kicked his legs beneath him in an attempt to pull himself away.

As his left leg caught on the concrete, he let out a sharp cry, and Jason drew his attention to the hilt of a knife pierced partway into Dick’s thigh. His eyes lingered on the hilt for a moment, the swollen skin puckering around the middle of the blade, before they trailed up again, tracing the path of stab wounds littered along his abdomen and torso, bleeding and spurting a considerable amount due to the overexertion of Dick’s struggle. Thick red smears began to draw themselves into the concrete with each movement of limbs and a sickening squelching sound could be heard as his back rubbed against the pavement.

“shit, shit” Jason muttered under his breath as he worked to ease Dick’s panic to prevent further damage of his wounds.

He wound his hands tightly around the flailing wrists and pressed kicking legs together with his thighs despite Dick’s shocked cries, bringing himself face to face with the wounded hero.

Body trembling from withholding the strength of the other, Jason called out once more.

“Calm down, idiot! It’s Jason!”

Dick’s body jerked slightly with recognition of the name and he peeled his eyes open, breath still catching and sputtering.

“A-ah,” he breathed as he made eye contact with the one above him.

He couldn’t have been seeing well Jason presumed. His right eyelid hung considerably lower than his left due to the swelling, and a thick layer of crust and gunk built into the corners of both where tears just barely clung to the inner walls of his eyes.

Jason’s hands felt warm and clammy as the stickiness between their skin rubbed uncomfortably through accumulated blood, gushing between closed fingers and daubing between legs.

“It’s me,” he repeated as he let out a slow breath and eased his hold on Dick’s body.

“Jason,” Dick gasped between heaving air, chest trembling and struggling with each inhale.

Jason released his grip on Dick’s wrists, peeling his hands away from the sticky half-dried blood that continued to cling to his fingers in thick webs. He roughly wiped them on his jacket, ignoring the pills of fabric and dirt that stuck to his hands at the action, and searched for the first aid kit that had been thrown from him in his small crash.

After locating it fairly quickly, he threw it open to check its contents, as most of it had been depleted from his past use of crude self-surgeries. He glanced over to Dick, who was violently shivering in the cold, curling in on himself to preserve what heat he could.

Embarrassed, Jason tore his jacket off and hurled it in Dick’s direction, “take it,” he said, “use it to put pressure on your wounds.”

He heard a muffled “thanks,” in return, along with the sound of ruffling fabric. Jason’s now bare arms burned in the cold as he returned to his work in the first aid kit, gathering together what sparse medical supplies he had left. His eyes darted back to Dick, who was simultaneously covering himself with the leather jacket to shield from the cold and pressing his wounds with the bunched-up fabric, gingerly avoiding the knife still imbedded in his leg and favoring against his obviously broken fingers.

Anxiety began to fester inside of Jason yet again as he took in the full extent of the wounds. The adrenaline from his crash and struggle with Dick had worn off and he suddenly didn’t know what to do.

_Is this going to work?_

_Can I do this?_

_I’ve done this before, right?_

_But it got infected last time…_

_There are so many wounds_

_Shit_

_Shit_

His breathing accelerated as he weighed out his options. He had enough to sew at least half of the wounds shut, but he barely had any disinfectant and there was no anesthetic left. His face grew hot and he could feel his eyes begin to swell with warnings of leaking. Wiping his nose with the back of his gloved hands, he brought what he had over to Dick.

“I have enough to sew some of them up, but I don’t have any anesthetic,” his voice cracked as he spoke.

“It’s okay,” Dick strained, still working to steady his breathing, “The bleeding needs to stop first.” A chill made its way through his body and the knife in his leg wriggled as his muscles flexed, making him inhale sharply. His face contorted, thick brows pushing towards each other and wet eyes shutting tight.

“What do you need me to do?” Jason asked, hovering his hands over the hilt of the knife.

“W-wait,” Dick sputtered out, reaching out to grab Jason’s wrist, but quickly falling back at the strain of his chest wounds, hanging his head back and breathing heavily as thick beads of sweat settled themselves along his forehead, his curly hair sticking to his cheeks in wet masses.

Jason tore his shirt off and tore it into a long strip of black fabric. His body shook for a moment as it adjusted to the sudden shock of the cold wind.

“I’m going to take it out,” he said as he bunched the fabric into a ball.

Dick nodded with a hum as he held his breath, pressing the back of his hand against his mouth in preparation.

Jason brought his shaking hand to the hilt. The cold seemed to bare harder on him than before and his goosebumps felt like they were pulling his skin out, stretching it past its capacity. It felt impossible for him to keep his hands steady as they approached the end of the knife.

“Are you ready?” he said quietly, sweat beginning to wrack his body despite the cold.

Dick could only nod in response, too tense to give a proper reply. Jason felt a touch on his free hand as Dick curled his fingers into his, trembling shaky hands grasping for just the smallest sense of comfort.

Giving himself a mental countdown, Jason’s hand reached the handle and began to pull. 

A deep guttural cry came from Dick’s throat, threatening to break though his tightly shut lips, and the hand intertwined with Jason’s flexed with an enormous amount of pressure, as he felt the joints in his fingers crack.

Jason grunted with the pressure of Dick’s grip, and he cringed at the sight of the blade slowly easing its way out of flesh with his touch. A choked sob finally escaped Dick’s lips as he went limp on his back, and his fingers lost their grip on Jason’s hand.

As soon as the tip of the blade came into view, Jason tossed it aside with disgust and covered the wound with the remains of his shirt, looking over to the one who had collapsed, his chest convulsing in suppressed sobs.

“It’s out, it’s okay, it’s okay,” he said quietly as he took the other’s hand into his. He placed it on the now soiled jacket that still lay over the wounds. “Keep pressure on those, come on,”

“mmhm,” Dick hummed through pinched lips. His breathing had escalated once again, and he was drenched in a cold sweat, “I’m s-sorry… about y-your jacket,” he stuttered.

“It’s fine,” Jason replied as he peeled back parts of the leather to check on some of the smaller wounds, “Don’t talk, you’ll overexert yourself again.”

Upon seeing that some of the shallower wounds had began to clot, Jason pulled the first aid kit back to his side, “I’m gonna start sewing some of these,”

He moved Dick’s free hand to the black fabric pressed against his thigh, “hold this one tightly.”

Dick hummed a reply as Jason began his work, only flinching slightly at the sudden sharp pain from the needle.

The sun had begun to creep up from the horizon, providing a cool light in the initially dark alley. Jason cringed at this. It would be best to get Dick out of here before the morning hit.

“Maybe I should call Bruce,” Jason muttered to himself as he crudely finished off the wound.

“Don’t call Bruce!” Dick cried out before cringing from the pain of his sudden outburst. He let out a slow breath and fell gently onto his back again, “please don’t call Bruce.”

“Why not? Dick I’m not a doctor, this is a temporary fix,” Jason said, irritation stirring in his tone, “you’ll need Alfred’s help, and I need to get you somewhere else before morning or else you’ll be seen.”

Dick’s body began to tremble under Jason’s touch as sobs crept up his throat once more, “I-I’m sorry, I…” he trailed off as pained inhales took over his voice, “I don’t want him to see me like this. If he sees me like this t-then he’ll know h-he was right, that I w-wasn’t r-ready,”

Jason let out a rough sigh as he began his work on the next wound, nervously glancing at the time on his phone. He needed to get Dick out of here.

“We don’t have time for this,” he grumbled before looking back at Dick, “stop crying! You’ll mess up my stitching!”

Dick brought one arm up, covering his eyes with a fist clenched tight, despite the few bent digits. As he hurriedly finished off the next wound, he began packing the medical kit.

“Dick, we need to-“ he was cut off by loud pained breathing coming from the one he was addressing. Dick’s breathing had hitched to a faster pace and he began clutching at his chest, struggling to inhale the painful breaths. He had started to hyperventilate.

“Dick!” Jason called out, turning his attention to him, “what’s wrong?”

All Dick could do was violently shake his head as his hands blindly grabbed for Jason, trying to latch onto anything they could. Jason took Dick’s face in his hands and gently ran his thumb across the skin. “Dick, it’s okay, you’re okay, I won’t call Bruce,” he said in a hushed voice, as soothing as he could manage.

Dick’s sobs had escaped his lips as his eyes darted around, looking at anything but Jason. His body convulsed underneath him and his hands had found their way to Jason’s shoulders, gripping them with what little strength he had in him.

The fabric that had been held on his leg wound fell, and it began to bleed again, sending a different wave of panic through Dick.

Jason quickly scooped it up and pressed it on the wound once again, still rubbing Dick’s cheek with his other hand.

Despite Jason’s comforts, Dick’s breathing refused to steady, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore, glued together with tears and gunk. Snot mixed with blood oozed out of his nostrils in a painful mixture.

Not knowing what to do, Jason brought his lips to Dick’s.

He felt the hot waves of Dick’s heavy breaths entering his mouth as their lips rubbed against each other. Small whimpers came from Dick’s throat as his breathing was halted, sharp inhales being the only break between their locked lips. The taste of iron made itself present on his tongue as blood from Dick’s nose spread sloppily around the corners of their mouths. Dick’s hands brought themselves to the back of Jason’s head, pulling it closer.

He felt tongue hit tongue from the force of the pull, his cheeks burning red hot against the bitter cold as clouds of breath fogged around their mouths from heavy pants.

As Dick’s breathing slowed, Jason pulled away, a string of saliva trailing between their lips. 

“We need to move,” he said quietly, throwing the first aid kit under his arm and taking his discarded helmet into his hands, “can you sit up?”

Dick, cheeks still flushed from the shared kiss, made an attempt to pull himself up with his arms before falling back down, sweating profusely.

Jason sighed and threw his helmet on, before crouching down to Dick’s level and sliding his arm underneath him, “come on, I’ve got you.”

Bracing his arms, he lifted Dick from underneath, mindful to keep his jacket draped over him. Dick hissed with pain at the action, pressing himself into Jason’s chest.

“Let’s go,” he said, seating himself onto his bike. He carefully shifted Dick’s body in front of his, still covered with his jacket. With one arm curled around Dick to hold him steady and one on the handles of his bike, he took off slowly into the bitter cold of the approaching morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey new chapter!  
I honestly wasn't entirely planning on continuing this but the reception has been good so I thought I'd go for it. I'm improvising on this a bit so I hope it's not too sporadic!

Getting Dick back to safety proved to be a difficult task. For one, he was much larger than Jason, and with his body completely limp with dead weight, Jason had struggled to hold him up while maintaining control of the bike. There was also the pressure of getting him to a secure location before the morning, when people would begin to come out and ask questions, while working with his slow pace.

Fortunately, Jason had managed to get the injured hero into his room before any questioning eyes could see him struggling to drag a limp and bleeding body through the halls.

Dick remained unconscious, laying on Jason’s dirty mattress, his bleeding stopped for the most part, while Jason stood in his bathroom, washing the blood off of his arms in his sink.

He rubbed his wrist with the palm of his hand, watching the flakes of dried blood littering his arms peel off under the stream of water. His previously freezing hands stung under the warmth of the stream, but the heat didn’t help to stop the shaking that still raked them. His rubbing grew quicker and quicker as he struggled with a particularly thick patch on his forearm, his breath growing heavier with each length, and he stopped when he realized the overwhelming pace that his hands had sped to.

His gaze went from the red irritation on his skin due to the rough rubbing, to his hands, still shaking. He let out a long sigh as he recomposed himself, turning his gaze to his reflection in the mirror instead.

_He could have died…_ he thought to himself as he watched the water vapor that had clung to the mirror’s surface fade, _Dick could have died._

As his face came into view, he noted the nasty bruise that had made itself along his temple from his fall on the motorcycle. From the look of the purple hinting around and under his eye, he could assume that his eye would swell in the next couple of days.

It was strange. In all honesty he hadn’t had much previous attachment to Dick, only having interacted with him a few times. Yet, at the sight of him defeated, vulnerable, something awoke. He suddenly felt as if he had known this man his whole life, desperate to save him. He felt his face flush warm as he thought of what, in the midst of Dick’s panic, they had just shared…

His thoughts were interrupted by a small cough coming from behind him.

“Dick?” He said quietly as he heard the sound of his mattress shifting.

He turned to his bed where Dick had just woken up, shifting underneath the covers and looking around in a dazed and confused state.

“W-where…” he started before he was hit with a wave of nausea, forcing him to settle back down.

Jason approached his bedside and slid down onto his knees, resting his head on his folded arms at the side of the injured man, “We’re at my place, don’t worry,” he said.

He heard Dick let out a sigh of relief before sinking back down into the pillow, turning his head to look at Jason.

A silence pursued between the two as they held eye contact, not awkward, but a shared moment of relief as the weight of the past situation seemed to lift off of the both of them at the same time. Jason slid his hand closer to Dick’s, carefully wrapping one finger around his thumb as to not aggravate the other’s sore body any further, while he sighed and pressed his face into the mattress.

Dick was the first to break the silence.

“Hey, Jason,” he mumbled, his voice drowsy and barely above a whisper.

Jason’s head slid up as he once again met Dick’s eyes, “yeah?”

“Can you…” he started before looking away, “can you forget what I said back in the alleyway? About Bruce?”

Jason recalled what had caused Dick’s previous panic attack, “do you want to talk about it?” he offered.

He thought he heard a sniff from Dick as he turned his head away, cheeks flushing, “I don’t think I can right now,” his words were beginning to slur and his eyes were fluttering, “can you just stay here like this?”

Jason hummed back a response and closed his eyes, making careful work of gently rubbing his fingers in circles on Dick’s hand. He was interrupted by Dick’s fingers weaving their way into his, curling what fingers he could into his grip. He felt the exhaustion drip into him as well, replacing the rush of adrenaline that had kept him going.

“Thank you Jason,” Dick sighed out as he fell back into a relieving sleep.

Jason collapsed his legs underneath him as he felt that he could not hold himself up anymore. The weight of what had happened had been too great, and with its relief he found himself more exhausted than he’d ever been.

His eyes drooped, and he could feel his small breaths blowing off of Dick’s arm in their close distance. He inched his head forward, letting his lips barely brush along the surface of the skin as sleep overcame him.

//////////////

Jason felt his heavy eyes flutter open unexpectedly. He could feel the thick layer of gunk that had built up in the corners of his eyes in his exhaustion as dark bags pulled his skin in a stinging feeling. Rubbing his eyes, he found himself in the same position he had fallen asleep in, he couldn’t have been out for very long. His blurred vision glanced around him to find the source of his sudden awakening. Before his eyes could even focus, he felt a hand, Dick’s hand, bump lightly onto his head.

He flinched as his senses snapped awake from their dreary state and he immediately directed his attention to Dick, worried that something may be wrong. After his initial relief upon seeing that Dick was still breathing, he noticed the other’s face contorted, eyebrows furrowing together and sweat beading along his skin as his body twitched in sharp pangs through gentle gasps.

_Must be having a nightmare…_ Jason deducted as he pulled himself up to his knees again.

He gently placed a hand on his shoulder, careful as to not put any pressure on wounds or sore spots.

“Dick,” he muttered, lightly jostling him, “Get up,”

Dick’s slightly hitched breathing settled when he snapped his eyes open, gasping as he turned his head to face Jason.

“Jason!” he gasped out, settling down from whatever was hurting him, “I-I…”

“You were having a nightmare,” Jason replied as he placed his hand on top of Dick’s, “I woke you up.”

“Thank you…” the other mumbled as he let out a slow exhale, his body sinking back into the mattress as his muscles relaxed.

Jason shifted uncomfortably on the floor. His knees were red and raw from the rough carpet and they cracked as he shifted them underneath him for a comfier stance. Blinking the grogginess from his mind, he found himself staring at the man laying on his bed. He noted how the sweat lining his skin highlighted shapely cheekbones in the light from the window, he noted how his full top lip pursed out in a pout, he noted how his thick eyebrows hung low towards his eyes, intimidating yet somehow soft…

“Jason?”

Jason jumped as he tore his gaze away from Dick, fiddling with his fingers. Dick winced as he rolled over onto to his side so that he could face Jason easier, bringing his arms up in front of him, curling his fingers together in a position that almost made him look vulnerable in a way.

The swelling in his face had gone down a considerable amount, Jason noticed. The skin around his eye had receded so that his eyelid could open a little more, and the edges of the bruise already showed signs of a healthy yellow hue. The lower half of his face was no longer smeared with blood from his nose, although signs of the dried substance still remained in the minute cracks of his lips. Jason found himself recalling the sharp iron taste of his blood upon those same lips. He felt his ears burn hot as he watched Dick’s lips part slightly.

“Thank you…” Dick interrupted Jason’s flustered thoughts, “Thank you for coming for me. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t…” he trailed off as he looked away.

“What happened to you?” Jason asked, reluctant to prod too much.

Another silence. Awkward, this time.

Jason watched as Dick’s downcast eyes recalled obviously painful memories and he suddenly regretted asking. Jason was about to get up to avoid the situation, but he felt Dick’s hand curl into his as he pulled the interlocked hands up to his lips, allowing them to brush along the back of Jason’s hand. He clasped his other hand around the pair, holding on tightly in front of his closed eyes. His dark hair curled around his face and spilled on the white sheets in a messy ring around and underneath his head.

“I…” Dick broke the silence, still holding onto Jason’s hand, “I tried talking to Bruce again.”

Jason sighed. He didn’t know exactly what had occurred between Dick and Bruce in the past, but from what he could gather it hadn’t been pretty, and they’d supposedly been completely out of contact for several years.

Jason nodded sympathetically to indicate that he was listening.

“I needed help on a mission. I had been backed into a wall and I didn’t know where to go from there, so I thought although it had been a while, I could ask Bruce for advice.” Dick’s voice cracked at the end of his sentence. He took a break from his words as his bottom lip began to tremble and his nose faded to a light shade of red.

With a ragged inhale, he continued, “I thought that even though we’d had a falling out, we were still family. Family can rely on each other, you know.” He pulled Jason’s hand to his eyes, hands struggling to hold together as they began to tremble. He could feel his wet lashes brushing along his skin, leaving thin wet trails.

Jason felt a lump build up in his throat; all of this was sounding so familiar to him.

“It took me such a long time to build up the courage to contact him again. I kept reassuring myself over and over that I was getting myself worked up over nothing, that everything would be fine, we’re still family, you know?” Dick opened his eyes and locked onto Jason’s.

“When I went to go see him, he told me that he wasn’t my babysitter and that if I couldn’t figure it out by myself then I wasn’t ready to…” Dick’s words became lost through his voice cracking. Tears began to make their way down the side of his face, spilling in small dots along the bedsheets, some finding their way into his nose or corner of his mouth. Red-hued eyes glossed over with wetness as he tried to hold his composure, obviously embarrassed.

“Sorry, sorry,” he muttered, trying to suppress the cries that were trying to make their way out. He covered his mouth with the bundle of hands still holding onto Jason’s.

“Jason, Bruce is my dad,” a heavy sniff raked his nose, “At least I considered him to be.”

Jason brought his other hand up to Dick’s, rubbing small comforting circles around his wrist. He felt his own eyes begin to gloss over as well, he knew what Dick was currently feeling all too well, and the realization was hitting him harder than he had expected.

“I know I upset him, but I didn’t think he’d just dismiss me like that,” he found himself leaning into Jason’s touch, “it’s all my fault.”

“Hey,” Jason interjected in a soft voice as he noticed Dick’s face giving away the amount of conflicting thoughts running through his head, “it’s okay.”

“N-no,” Dick stuttered as one of the sobs he had been holding back finally broke through, “I…”

Despite his efforts, the sobs kept coming. With every sob, he flinched violently as his sore wounds were aggravated and he pressed a hand over his mouth in an attempt to stop, tears of sadness, pain, and frustration spilling between his fingers as he let out muffled cries of hurt.

Jason untangled his hand from Dick’s, despite their grabbing protest, and pulled himself up from his sitting position on the floor. He carefully made his way onto the bed next to Dick, turning onto his side to face the other, and brought his hands up to hold his face.

“Dick,” Jason said, “Look at me,”

Dick hummed back a response as he held his breath.

“I know how you feel,” Jason said quietly, “I do.”

He slid his hand from the side of Dick’s face to the back of his shoulder, gently rubbing up and down his back. Dick winced a bit at first, but soon relaxed and leaned his body into the comforting touch. As he gathered a deep breath, shuddering out the last of his sobs as a calmed down, he continued,

“I was reckless that night. I went out to do some patrolling, some stress relief, but my head wasn’t all there. I was distracted and the next thing I know it I’ve got knives in me during what would have been a simple run in with some thieves, and I’m falling off the roof of a ten-story building. I managed to slow my fall somewhat, but I still took a nasty hit to the ground.”

Jason recalled the state he had found Dick in, imagining the incident play through in his head

“I was scared. I couldn’t think of anyone to call and I had never felt more alone than in that moment. I laid there for a while, I must have hit my head pretty hard because I suddenly thought of you,” he laughed a bit before wincing at the exertion, “Even thinking about it now, I don’t know why I decided to call you of all people but…”

Jason felt his ears burn red hot, and he hoped that the flush he was feeling along his face wasn’t as obvious as it felt.

“I’m glad. I don’t really remember much of what happened in the alleyway, it was all a big blur of adrenaline, but I feel like you really cared… you…”

Jason flinched when Dick stopped talking as he looked away, brows furrowing in confusion,

“this may sound weird but…” he smiled awkwardly, “did you kiss me?”


	3. Chapter 3

“this may sound weird but…” he smiled awkwardly, “did you kiss me?”

The room felt painfully quiet, as if the entire world was waiting on his answer. Jason wanted to reply but his throat tightened, constricting itself around his sloppy words that he couldn’t seem to form.  
Had his hands always been this sweaty?

Jason opened his mouth, hoping to get some kind of leverage on his twisted throat. If he stayed quiet for too long Dick would know.

He would know.

“I-I don’t…”

Jason tried to force his words out, to provide anything that’d help break the silence and tension between them. Suddenly Dick felt so far away as he lost his grip on his surroundings. He thought back on the alleyway, Dick bleeding on the ground in a fit of panic. He thought of how he’d pressed his lips against the other’s, intertwined their tongues that slid across each other easily in a mixture of saliva and blood. He could remember the way a swollen bump on Dick’s lip would raise against the edge of his top lip as it slid over it, the hot breathes fuming against him as the gradually slowed to an even pace…

Thinking on it now, why had he done that?

He had told himself it was a desperate attempt to calm Dick down, but perhaps he had actually enjoyed it. Jason’s body was beginning to feel awfully hot against the previous cold air of his apartment.

“Jason?”

Dick’s concerned voice interrupted his thoughts, and he felt a freezing hand press itself against his forehead. 

Jason hummed against it, closing his eyes at the touch and shuffling his body closer to its source.

“Are you okay? You feel warm,”

Jason’s looked towards Dick with half lidded eyes, the heat in his body making him feel sleepy. When there was no response from Jason, Dick stared back at Jason with understanding eyes, “Jason, you…”  
Jason lowered his eyes and gently took Dick’s hand in his, lowering it to rest on his cheek as he leaned into his palm. 

He could feel a stinging at the edges of his eyes as tears began to find their way from him. They dripped down his cheek, across his nose bridge to pool in the crevices of the hand his head lay on. It became hard to breathe as his throat began to feel thick and heavy and a pressure began to build in his nose.

He took in a shaky breath, his chest trembling.

“Jason…”

“I’m sorry,”

Jason had closed his eyes, but he could still feel Dick’s expression through his blocked vision. With no more words, he felt Dick’s hand twitch underneath his cheek as another touch pressed against the other side of his face, a thumb lightly swiping the wetness underneath his eyes.

The gesture made him sick to his stomach.

Dick was so kind.

He didn’t know why he was being so kind to him.

When Jason fluttered his eyes open once more, he almost flinched at how close Dick had closed himself in. Their eyes locking, Jason’s face felt hotter than ever, he was sure that Dick could feel it in the palms of his hands.

He flinched when Dick wordlessly pressed his leg into Jason’s thighs, shifting their position so that they would become intertwined, keeping their gaze tightly locked.

Jason could’ve sworn he saw Dick’s bottom lip twitch.

Jason let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he was holding when Dick moved his lips closer, eyes shutting in anticipation.

The sound of broken glass shattered his euphoria. Before he could register what was happening a force pummeled into his chest, knocking him off of the bed as he violently rolled onto the hard floor, crying out when his splitting headache found its way back to him in an instant. Before he could pull himself up, he felt a weight on his back and a hand grab the back of his head, turning it into the ground at an odd and painful angle.  
Jason ripped his arm out from underneath him, frantically spreading it across the room until his fingers met with the first object they could find before throwing it back behind him, slamming it into the intruder. His thoughts went to Dick as he repeatedly hit the intruder with whatever item had graced his grasp. Dick wouldn’t be able to protect himself in his state. 

As his arm flew back for another blow, it was met with a rough grasp around his wrist. A twist and a pop at the joint of his ring finger had him crying out, and he threw himself onto his back, throwing off the offender.

“Stop!” he heard Dick cry from the bed.

Before he could get up, he found himself pressed harshly onto his back, the cold sensation of steel meeting the surface his throat. Shit, he had to get to Dick. He had to protect him.

“You answer me right now,” the voice from above him growled, particularly high pitched, “Why the hell is Dick here?”

Huh?

“Damian stop!” he heard Dick shout through the frantic ruffling of bedsheets.

Damian?

Jason’s eyes had begun to adjust in the dim lighting as he glanced up at the attacker, noticing their small stature and soft face.

“Don’t tell me to stop!” the one above him shouted, “You’re hurt badly, and I want to know why you’re at this guy’s shitty apartment!”

“It’s not that shitty…” Jason muttered through heavy breaths.

“Let up and I’ll tell you,” Dick lowered his voice, his tone warmer than before.

The boy above him looked towards Dick, thick eyebrows still furrowed but concern flashing in his eyes, his grip slowly easing. As his body turned, Jason caught the shine reflecting off of his uniform, a golden badge with an “R” embezzled on it.

“Dick who the fuck is this?” he questioned, roughly shoving the boy off of his chest, a high-pitched yelp resounding through the room.

Dick, who had managed to sit himself up, rubbed his hands along his temples with an exhausted sigh, “I’ll tell you in a minute, let me talk to him first.”

The boy, who had stood up to his magnificent height of 4’11”, stumbled over to the bedside and grabbed Dick’s hand.

“What happened to you? Are you okay? You need to be more careful! You should just call me next time!” he barked aggressively at the clearly exhausted Dick. Jason could see the obvious display of red that had spread itself across Dick’s cheeks in embarassment.

“Hey quiet down, we’re both in rough shape here,” he said as he put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, nodding in Jason’s directing, “Everything’s fine Damian,”

“Bruce told me about that guy,” the boy, Damian, jabbed his finger towards Jason, “he’s all trouble! Did he kidnap you? Drag you up here? What’s up with your eyes you look like you’ve been crying, I swear if he-”

“He helped me out, it’s okay,” 

Damian, visibly flustered and riled up, turned around to Jason with a huff, “Listen you, Dick better be telling the truth or you’re in for it.”

Before Damian could stomp his way over to the poor man on the floor, Dick pulled him back by the collar.

“I’m telling the truth, I called him to come get me,” Dick paused for a moment before furrowing his brows in confusion, “hey how did you even know I was here?”

Damian pulled his own phone out of his belt with a smirk, flashing its incredibly cracked screen with pride, “I hacked into your phone so that I can know your location, you make a lot of stupid decisions when you’re alone on patrol so I figured someone had to keep an eye on you after you left.”

Dick rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sighed, “Damian if Bruce finds out you’re still connected with me he’s going to be furious.” 

Damian let out a short cackle, a fitting laugh for his demeanor, “Oh yeah? What’s he gonna do, fire me? His son?”

“Son?” Jason exclaimed, interrupting the banter between the two.

An uncomfortable silence ensued between the three of them as Jason shot questioning eyes towards Dick, who looked at the floor to avoid his gaze.

He suddenly remembered all the times he’d questioned what his relationship with Bruce had been, endless nights of internal conflict and confusion as to why he was there in the manor. Bruce never called him son. He never hugged him, never acknowledged him further than seeing potential in him as a patrol partner. Even then, Bruce had never trusted him. Despite all of this, being considered as a son to Bruce was all Jason wanted. He had fought tooth and nail to make Bruce proud of him as a son, but he never was. He’d never dare to call him his son.

So who the hell was this?

“Jason,” Dick’s gentle voice interrupted his turmoil, “Are you okay?”

The atmosphere in the apartment was thick, even the loud-mouthed so-called ‘Damian’ seemed to be reading the room as he had shut up real quick.

Emotionally exhausted out of all words, Jason stood up and left his room, closing the door behind him and immediately sliding to the floor with his face buried in his face.

What made this kid more of a son than to Bruce than him?

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Dick had left by the time Jason returned that night, leaving only blood soiled sheets and a note.

Thank you for your help  
I’ll be back when I need my stitches taken out  
We’ll have a lot to discuss  
-Dick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey it's Roo, long time no see!  
It's been a busy start of the year for me but I finally got some inspiration to continue this  
Finally introducing one of my favorite boys ~

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
I'll likely be continuing this one for a little longer so stick around if you want!  
Comments are appreciated, but please be gentle this is my first time writing fanfiction lol


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